Faith Meets Life: For musicians - A voice from the dead

Maybe you've had the experience of listening to a popular song, wondering if the artist could really believe in what he or she was singing. Consider one the old bands that's come back with an adrenalin-testosterone-driven blast for fans in the rock world, AC/DC. No one claims they are great poets. But really:

You got a lady and you want her gone / But you ain't got the guts

She keeps naggin' at you night ‘n' day / Enough to drive you nuts

Pick up the phone, leave her alone / It's time you made a stand

For a fee, I'm happy to be / Your back door man, hey

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap / Dirty deeds done dirt cheap

Artsy lyrics not. And that's about as good as it gets. The band may be from the U. K. but somehow Shakespeare did not seem to have made an impact on their vocabulary, rhyming patterns or thematic range.

This is a far cry from some of the music artists we are hearing from today such as Feist, the aging Tragically Hip or the less aged Sloan. On the other hand, there is no shortage of musicians who celebrate violence, drugs, or aggressive sexuality with seemingly little concern for contributing to a gradual normalizing of destructive behaviours, not only in the club scene, but in our families, schools, and other forms of community.

Mary Travers, now beyond aging since she left this world on September 16, had something to say for artists. She was one third of the once hugely famous Peter, Paul and Mary. Their music was guitar-based, but other than that, you could say they had not much in common with the AC/DC's of the world.

In a 1978 CBC interview with Barbara Frum, Travers spoke about the group. She talked about how Paul Stookey “had a renaissance of Christian involvement” and slowed down the touring so he could be with his family. And then she launched into a short moral lesson for singers and musicians. As an amateur guitarist and singer myself, I listened to her thoughts as they were aired again recently.

She spoke of the responsibility to choose songs carefully, throwing out hundreds. “We [Peter, Paul and Mary] feel that there is a responsibility of the artist to judge a song word-wise. What is it really saying and do I agree with what it is saying? Every song has a philosophic point of view. I want to feel that I can sing [a] lyric without betraying myself. . . We would not want to sing a song that we felt had a destructive philosophy behind it.”

To me, that's a great lesson for every artist, not just musicians. I feel that when I choose a song to learn with a band or solo, that it has to reflect something I feel to be true, and not destructive, but constructive.

Peter, Paul and Mary spoke out strongly against the Vietnam War. They took the themes of freedom and justice and wove them into their music. They celebrated childhood, innocence and love. They inspired not only many of their fellow Americans, but also many Canadians, to reflect on life and to live with greater compassion in our world.

Michael Veenema was a chaplain at Fanshawe for a decade. He owns one Peter, Paul and Mary recording and does crank the radio when Back in Black comes on.

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